Despite the team’s loss in the PIFL playoffs last week, the Freedom definitely had what could be called a successful season.

The Freedom finished the regular season with an 8-4 record, won the National Conference regular-season title and hosted a home playoff game at the Sun Center.

But now, the focus is switching to next season — not just for the players and staff of the Freedom but for the fans.

The city of Trenton has endured the loss of two professional sports franchises — the indoor football Steel and the ice hockey Titans — in the last three years, and fans were understandably wary of getting too attached to the Freedom early on.

But Freedom ownership, just as it said it would at the onset of the season, is sticking around.

“We learned a lot this year,” co-owner Megan Williams said. “Some of the things we did, we did right from the beginning; some of the things we didn’t. When we made mistakes, we tried to correct them as quickly as possible.

“I think we’ve done well. I think the fact that we made it to the playoffs the first year made people take notice more than they had during the regular season. And I think that a lot of them are excited to come back next season and cheer us on, and I know that we’re excited to have them back next season.”

Even though the 2014 season just ended, focus has already sharply turned towards getting ready for the 2015 Freedom campaign within the front office.

“We can’t wait for the new season,” Williams said. “In fact, we just lost that playoff game last weekend, and I’ve been in the office all week, and a lot of our front office staff are talking about next year already.”

Within the team, a lot of the success was built by developing a team culture both on and off the field, something that should help continue to bring free agents to the team over the coming years.

“We’re definitely building a culture, and that’s the most important thing,” said running back Melik Brown, a Trenton native who also played a stint with the defunct Steel team. “We had a lot of rookies on our team this year, a lot of rookies. So with everybody getting this year of experience, it’s just building for the future. And that’s just our ultimate goal, to build for the future.”

Williams talked about building a family atmosphere, something that she and the rest of ownership has preached since day one.

“I think word’s getting around from our players to other players around the league,”
Williams said of the team’s attitude. “And the teams that came to visit us and play us at home, they really saw what we were all about, because we treat everyone the same.
“We’ve looked at the Freedom as, we wanted it to be a family that happened to play football. I think that the players from the other teams and the management from the other teams saw that.”

The Freedom came into the season with lofty expectations for a first-year franchise, and even though they didn’t meet the ultimate goal of a championship, they accomplished a lot of what they had set out to do.

“For this being a first-year team, it’s always hard to start over and start from scratch, because you’ve got to build a new team or whatever,” Brown said. “But I think we accomplished a lot. One thing that we talked about from day one was being a family. So we were just going with that aspect and trying to get better every week. I think we improved, obviously we came up short, but it’s a lot we can build off of.”

Head coach Kevin O’Hanlon was impressed by his team’s overall season effort after last week’s playoff effort.

“Look what we did in one year, man,” O’Hanlon said after the loss. “Look at the community out here today. If we did this in one year, holy crap, what are we going to do in the second year?”

Williams and ownership were very impressed with O’Hanlon’s ability to bring talent to the Freedom, and he should be the incumbent coach for years to come.

“Kevin and the rest of the coaching staff did a fantastic job with the recruiting of the players,” Williams said. “Every morning we had guys in our office that were running and checking the board for all of the other teams to see who got let go, in all the other leagues.

“They really did do a fantastic job; they knew what they were looking for. They knew where we struggled and weren’t struggling and focused that attention to get us the best that we could get. Every player that was on the Freedom in 2014, I couldn’t be any prouder of any of them. They really did perform above expectations.”

With one season now in the books and the next to look forward to, the Freedom are nothing but excited for 2015 to come around, so that they can embrace returning fans and hopefully create even more fans of Trenton Freedom football.

“I think that, performing the way that the team performed, we got a lot of attention during that playoff run,” Williams said. “And I think people realize, hey, you know what, they’re here; they’re doing everything that they said they were going to do from the beginning.
“We really aren’t going anywhere; we really are going to be back next year.”